Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Ocean Releases

Ocean Releases

Consensus holds that Fukushima constitutes the
greatest radiological release into the ocean ever to occur. According to Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, levels of radioactive cesium
reached more than 100,000 becquerels per cubic meter in early April of 2011.[i]The World Nuclear Association suggests
that 169 Petabecquerels of Iodine-131 equivalent were releases into the ocean from
Cesium-137, Cesium-134, and Iodine-131from March 26 to September 30th.[ii]
This figure does not include March releases into the atmosphere, which the
World Nuclear Association calculates at 1020 petabecquerels from March 12 to
March 31, 011. The French Institute for
Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) described Fukushima as the
world’s worst nuclear contamination event ever for the ocean,[iii]
reporting that from March 21st to mid-July 27, 27.1 petabecquerels
of cesium-137 contaminated the ocean. One peta becquerel is equivalent to a
million billion becquerels, or 10^15. [iv]

Atmospheric and direct ocean releases occurring as
contaminated water spilled from reactors into the ocean caused radionuclide
levels to spike offshore. Woods Hole scientist Ken Buessler revealed (12/12/2011) that Fukushima cesium-137
radiation in the sea near the plant peaked in April 2011 at 50 million times
above normal levels (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2011/12/12/fukushima-ocean-radiation-was-50-million-times-above-normal-but-no-threat-scientists/). In
a separate interview with Straight on
October 28, 2011, Ken Buesseler stated that Fukushima was by far the greatest
accidental release of radiation into ocean waters, the magnitude of which in
April 2011 was over one hundred times Chernobyl’s contamination of the Black
Sea.[v]

These comments reflect concerns based on ocean
emissions during the first few months of the disaster. Ocean contamination did
not however end in the first months of the disaster. The releases of
radioactive water from the plant into the ocean have been, in this writer’s
opinion, ongoing because of the need for continuous cooling of melted reactor
corium and the inability to effectively de-contaminate cooling water. Reactors 1 through 3 have been continuously
cooled since March of 2011 with water injections. The World Nuclear Association
reports that by the end of March 2011 all water storage tanks – the condenser
units and condensate tanks – around units 1 through 4 were full of contaminated
water pumped from the buildings.[vi] Tepco built a wastewater
treatment facility to decontaminate the water but has struggled with
decontamination and storage given the volume of water being pumped into the
reactor buildings and the level of contamination. During the summer of 2011
Tepco installed concrete panels designed to seal water intakes of units 1
through 4 in order to prevent contaminated water from reaching the ocean. In
October 2011, Tepco installed a steel water shield wall between the units and
the ocean.[vii]

Yet, despite these efforts
ocean contamination has continued because the site is literally saturated from
the ongoing water injections. As of September of 2012, Tepco reported water
injections as follows: five tons per hour at Unit 1reactor; seven tons per hour
at unit 2; seven tons per hour at unit 3.[viii] No information was
provided about any water injections into unit 4 or the common spent fuel pool.
At 456 tons a day of water going into the units, we can expect substantial
ongoing leakage into the ocean. In November of 2011,Tepco admitted that its
filtration system at the plant dumped more 11,000 tons of water contaminated
with cesium 134, 137, and Iodine 131 into the sea.[ix] Tepco stated that it had
been spraying about 70 tons of water around the Daiichi compound a day since
early October and that water in some trenches measured at 10,000 millisieverts
an hour, which is 10 sieverts an hour, a fatal dose.[x]

Ken Buesseler speaking
in March 2012, described the data from his international research cruise off
Japan that took place in June 2011:

Despite the
announcement in December that operators of the power plant had achieved cold
shut down, we know they are still using tons of water to cool the reactors and that not all the water has been collected or
treated. As a result, the ground around the site is like a dirty sponge,
saturated with contaminated water that is leaking into the ocean.

He noted that other scientists had
confirmed his 2011 findings of radiation levels 400 miles offshore Japan. He
pointed out that little was known about radiation levels at seafloor levels but
evidence exists that marine sediments are collecting radioactive contamination
at higher concentrations than in the water. He said that little information was
available about the radiation levels of groundwater. He tells the public that information about the
extent of releases of contaminated water are lacking:

Other
measurements show trends that are more worrisome. Levels of radioactivity found
in fish are not decreasing and there appear to be hot spots on the seafloor
that are not well mapped. There is also little agreement on exactly how much
radioactivity was released or even whether the fires and explosions at the
power plant resulted in more radioactive fallout to the ocean than did direct
releases of radioactivity caused by dumping water on the reactors to keep them
cool.[xi]

The Mainichi reported on April 3, 2012
that “Cesium up to 100 times levels before disaster found in plankton far off
nuke plant” and that the“high
concentration of cesium, which is believed to derive from the Fukushima No. 1
Nuclear Power Plant, suggests that radioactive substances that have leaked from
the complex are spreading extensively in the sea.” http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120403p2a00m0na009000c.html

Recent findings on cesium-134 deposits in marine snow gathered 2000 kilomters
away from the plant at depths of 5000 meters measuring 1,200 Becquerels per
kilogram indicate that radiation contamination from Fukushima has spread far
and wide.

Lack of certainty about
the extent of initial and ongoing atmospheric and ocean releases of radiation
from the plant complicates extrapolations of effects. Tepco has provided no
concrete information about the extent of damage to the nuclear fuel in the
reactors and pools. Mr. Yastel Yamada, a retired engineer and founder of the
volunteer Fukushima Skilled Veterans Corps commented that the fuel from the
reactors may possibly be in powder form.[xii]

The radiation
contamination of the Pacific will be an ongoing problem. One study that modeled
dilution declines of Cesium-137 published in Environmental Research Letters predicted that after seven years the
“total peak radioactivity levels would still be about twice the pre-Fukushima
values” off the coastal waters of North America”[xiii]
The risks from contaminated ocean water are not restricted to marine and
coastal life. Long-lasting radioactive isotopes, such as cesium-137 and
plutonium-239, will bio-accumulate in marine life in the same fashion that
mercury bio-accumulates currently. Marine animals at the top of the food chain
and birds that feed on marine life will become highly contaminated
radioactively. The Canadian Museum of Nature notes that orcas are often
considered toxic waste when they die based on their high toxicity.[xiv]

Furthermore,
contaminants in the ocean do not necessarily stay in the ocean....

[i]Cited
Hiroko Tabuchi. Fears Accompany Fishermen in Japanese Disaster Region The New
York Times (2012, June 25):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/world/asia/fears-accompany-fishermen-in-japanese-disaster-region.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120626

About Me

I am a Professor at a large public university. I study political economy and biopolitics (the politics of life). My interests are diverse but are broadly concerned with economic, social and environmental justice. I have published 5 books: Crisis Communication, Liberal Democracy and Ecological Sustainability: The Threat of Financial and Energy Complexes in the Twenty-First Century (2016); Fukusima and the Privatization of Risk (2013); Constructing Autism (2005); Governmentality, Biopower and Everyday Life (2008/2011); Governing Childhood (2010).
I also participated in an edited collection on Fukushima: Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization (2014).